Mike Dillingham - Alaska Dogs and Iditarod Mushers - The Adventures of Balto, Back of the Pack, Honor Bound, Rivers

On the first Saturday in March, anywhere from 50 to 80 mushers leave the starting gate on Fourth Avenue in Anchorage. Of these, at least half have no real hope of winning or even seriously competing: their main goal is simply to finish in the best time they can — and in some cases, just to finish. Crossing under the famous burled arch at the finish line in Nome with their dogs is more than victory enough.

Running the Iditarod is a grueling test of dogs and drivers which can last as long as three weeks and can involve head-on encounters with some of the most forbidding weather and terrain on earth. Nevertheless, any musher worth his (or her) salt wants to run the Iditarod some day, just as runners want to do the Boston Marathon, even if there is no chance of winning.

Drivers who run the race cover a wide spectrum. Mushers have included teenagers and octogenarians, well-to-do adventurers and backwoods trappers, executives and laborers, teachers and students, storekeepers and factory owners, lawyers and Maytag repairmen. A few can be considered professional dog mushers who make their livings from their dogs, while most are part-timers who must hold down a “regular” job to keep their teams afloat.

But the most striking feature of the Iditarod is that everyone competes equally: men and women, young and old, amateur and professional — there are no separate men’s or women’s divisions, nor is there a senior class or a special amateur bracket. About 20 % of mushers are female, and women have won the race five times (all within the past 12 years). The top 20 finishers in every race routinely include several women. Age is no barrier, either: most Iditarod winners are older than 30 and two mushers have finished the race at 80 or more years of age.

Of course, not everyone completes the trip: on average, one of every five mushers will scratch somewhere along the trail. Not surprisingly, the Iditarod Official Finishers Club is one of the most exclusive in the world, with under 500 members. (More people have climbed Mount Everest than have finished the Iditarod.)

Because of its difficulty, the Iditarod places strict qualifying restrictions on people who would take the long road to Nome. Naturally, anyone who has previously finished the race is eligible to sign up. Rookies, however, must finish one or two approved mid-distance races totaling at least 500 miles within the previous two years. (The term “rookie” can be misleading: some so-called rookies have finished or even won major races such as the Yukon Quest; they have little difficulty qualifying for the Iditarod.)

Training for the race usually begins in summer of the preceding year, when dogs are hooked up to all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) for short runs of three miles or so. These four-wheeler runs may lengthen to 10 or 15 miles by the time snow falls in mid-October. Once sleds are hooked up (which pull much more easily than the ATVs), the runs rapidly increase to 30 and 40 miles; some mushers will have their teams routinely making 50-mile runs by Christmas.

The first “mid-distance” races (meaning anything between 200 and 500

miles in length) are in late December and early January. Most Iditarod mushers will try to run their teams in at least a couple of these races for the good training; some better drivers, of course, also have an eye toward prize money. By the time the Iditarod rolls around in March, most of the dogs will have 1,500 miles or even more behind them. Since the training is usually done with smaller teams, mushers themselves may have more than 2,500 miles on the runners.

The basic setup of a dog team is fairly simple. Long-distance racing sleds weigh no more 50 pounds and can be built of traditional materials such as birch or ash, or of modern lightweight plastics and composites. The eight-to nine-foot-long runners are built to accommodate special plastic bottoms which can be slipped off and quickly replaced when they wear out. The musher stands on the rear part of the runners, behind the basket (or body) of the sled.

The rear part of the sled basket is the handlebar, which is the driver’s only hold on the sled — and on the team. Some mushers attach themselves to their sleds in case they inadvertently depart for some reason. (Losing a team is a major sin for a musher — and additionally usually makes for a long, cold, embarrassing walk.)

In the sled bag is an assortment of items. Mandatory gear for the Iditarod (and most other races) includes basic survival gear: snowshoes, an ax, an arctic-quality sleeping bag, at least two pounds of food and two sets of booties for every dog, and an alcohol stove with a three-or-four-gallon pot (for melting snow and making hot water for dog food).

Mushers will also include warm clothing items (temperatures can range from 40 above to 60 below), food for themselves, spare lines and snaps, and a small tool kit. A Thermos of drinking water is critical: dehydration is a major threat in the cold, dry climate. Most drivers will also include a camera and a Walkman with their favorite cassettes to help fight the interminable hours of boredom on the long, wide-open stretches of the trail.

Dogs are hooked up in pairs on either side of a central gangline of heavy braided rope with a cable core, which in turn is attached to the sled bridle with carabiners. Gangline is made in two-dog sections with loops on the ends; the loops allow the sections to be linked together to handle as many dogs as are required. A 16-dog team stretches 70 to 80 feet from the leader’s nose to the musher on the back on the sled — as long as a highway 18-wheeler.

A stout tugline connects the rear of each dog’s harness to the gangline. Each dog also has a neckline hooked to its collar to keep it from straying too far away from the gangline. The thin neckline is designed to break if the dog should get wrapped around a tree or other obstacle which might cause choking.

On very cold days or on rough trails, the dogs will usually wear booties of tough fabric to protect their feet. Thin-coated dogs may also be fitted with special warming blankets. Sled dogs are never muzzled and are free to jump back and forth across the gangline as the sled cuts across sharp bends.

Each Iditarod team is limited to 16 dogs, of which at least five must be on the gangline at the finish. This constitutes an incredibly powerful pulling machine, fully capable of dragging a pickup truck with its brakes set on packed snow. The musher’s only real control of this juggernaut is voice commands to the lead dogs (the drag brake on the sled is often only marginally effective). This cleverly takes advantage of the dogs’ wolf heritage: a dog team is basically a pack, and a pack always follows the leader, who in turn follows the commands of the driver.

Most mushers run a pair of leaders up front (one of which is usually primary), while a few run a solo leader. Iditarod mushers will include as many leaders as possible in their teams, rotating them to take advantage of each dog’s particular strengths as the trail conditions vary. Regardless how many leaders are in the team, the “pack” will always follow the dog(s) in the actual lead position.

Lead dogs (like all good sled dogs, for that matter) are superbly bred and trained, and tend to be smarter than average. Some dogs will run in lead but don’t know commands very well; they are sometimes called “trail leaders” and can be very important to help set a team’s speed. Other leaders are especially good at following commands under all conditions; they are called “command leaders” and are very valuable in bad weather and on tight or confusing trails.

Usually a trail leader will be paired with a command leader, although trail leaders can run by themselves quite satisfactorily in many cases. The basic commands for the leaders are “Gee” (turn right), “Haw” (turn left), “On by” (pass or go straight) and “Whoa.” The usual command to start the team is “Hike” or “Okay.” Only Hollywood believes dog drivers shout “Mush!” at their dogs. (“Mush” is from the French “marchon,” which means to move.)